A Deep Dive Into Your Phone Bill's 'Fine Print'

When it comes to managing your monthly budget and the services that are draining money from it – like your phone service – you want to know the sneaky little details your phone carrier conveniently forgot to mention. 

A guide to phone service fine print

The illusion of unlimited  

Almost every carrier offers an unlimited data plan, but "unlimited" might not mean unlimited. If you look at the fine print, what you’ll find is one of three things:  

• The data is truly unlimited (no slowdowns or deprioritization). It usually will be marked as “premium data” and you can expect to find these types of plans from the “Big 3” (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile).  
• The data is unlimited but deprioritized. This usually is found with MVNOs (or prepaid carriers) as they lease access to the network from either AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon, but at the cost of having their own customers’ data be deprioritized during times of congestion. So, if you live in a larger city and go to events (sports, concerts, festivals, etc.) you can expect to have your data run slower during that time.  
• The data is unlimited but with a high-speed cap. You’ll see that most carriers offering this kind of plan will cap the high-speed data between 20GB and 50GB, If you use up more data than that, it’ll start slowing down for the remainder of the billing cycle (causing possible video buffering and loading screens when uploading content).  

This type of fine print is the least criminal on our list of shady phone bill business, but it’s still important to recognize and understand the different types of unlimited data plans available – and what you’re willing to pay for.  

The introductory price trap  

Successful marketing is loud marketing. But that doesn’t make it truthful. Take all those “$15/month for unlimited everything!” claims. When you look into the fine print, you’ll notice that those are just introductory prices (usually for the first 3 months), and the regular price after that is usually more expensive than the next cheapest option, so in the long run, are you really saving? (Mint Mobile we're lookin' at you.)

The 'free phone' that isn’t  

Ah yes, the “free” phone promo. It sounds like a steal (and it is — you're just the one getting robbed). You’ll be paying it off in tiny installments for 24-36 months, locked into a plan you’ll hate (or at least hate paying for). Technically, that’s just a payment plan in a cute dress. 

You don't want to get tricked into financing a device in a way that costs way more in the long run. Try a free phone bill calculator to see whether you'd save by buying outright, not financing with a carrier. 

The hidden fees 

Lastly, the fine print we all know about and probably already look for: the hidden fees. Nowadays, they’re at least more readily found, as they’re listed in the Broadband Fact Sheets that every carrier has to provide next to their plans. But before you hit “buy,” make sure you add up what that shiny price tag will actually look like after you add on the taxes, the regulatory fees, the activation fees, etc. The actual final number might surprise you.  

The good news: It is possible to get actual $0 wireless service that spares you excess fees and phone-bill bloat!